Off-site Replication: Preparing for Disaster Recovery

Many companies that should have a disaster recovery plan in place either do not have a plan in place, or they have an underdeveloped one. Here are a few reasons why it is important to fully develop your plan so that it helps reduce the disruption your business experiences in the event of a disaster.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Simply put, a disaster recovery plan is a set of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of a disaster on the infrastructure of critical business processes.

Most companies today cannot operate if their IT infrastructure is down. Any time a single server, rack of gear, remote office cite or data center goes down, some or all operations come to a halt. The equipment may be directly harmed by a natural disaster, or it may indirectly affected by a power outage. Either way, when IT infrastructure is down, so is revenue.

Companies directly affected by disasters are the most visible victims, but nearby companies may also suffer. A stark example of companies that suffered indirectly during a disaster is 9/11. Everyone thinks of the people who were in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the companies that were housed in those towers, and, of course, they should be remembered. More than 200 companies within a five-block area, though, were also affected. They did not have power for weeks after the disaster.

Why do Companies Need Disaster Recovery Plans?

Without a disaster recovery plan in place, it is very difficult to recover from a disaster. Of the companies affected by Hurricane Katrina, for instance, approximately a quarter of them never recovered from the storm. Even companies that do recover after a disaster may lose market share to competitors that were able to recover quicker or were unaffected.

What Does a Disaster Recovery Plan Look Like?

A disaster recovery plan employs a tiered system, where Tier 1 contains the most mission critical processes, Tier 2 the second-most critical ones, Tier 3 the third-most and so on. By placing each process in an appropriate tier, companies can prioritize their disaster recovery plan. The most mission critical processes should be restored first; therefore, the IT infrastructure that supports Tier-1 processes is given top priority in the plan. Symantecs Net Backup helps with this process, enabling backup and recovery of Tiered processed, no matter how mission critical they are.

Investing in a Plan

Depending on the size of a company, a disaster recovery plan can save companies millions of dollars, should a disaster occur. The average disaster in the financial sector costs companies $1 million per hour. In light of these potential costs, a disaster recovery plan is a small, wise investment.